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EMBARGOED UNTIL RELEASE AT 7:00 p.m. EDT, Monday, April 15, 2024

BEA 24—15

Gross Domestic Product for Guam, 2022

Gross Domestic Product by Industry and Compensation by Industry, 2021

Real gross domestic product (GDP) for Guam increased 5.1 percent in 2022 after increasing 2.1 percent in 2021 (table 1.3), according to statistics released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). These statistics were developed under the Statistical Improvement Program, funded by the Office of Insular Affairs (OIA) of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

GDP for 2022

The increase in real GDP reflected increases in exports, private fixed investment, government spending, and personal consumption expenditures (table 1.2). Imports, a subtraction item in the calculation of GDP, increased.

Chart 1. Guam: Contributions to the Percent Change in Real GDP, 2022

Exports of goods and services increased 150.4 percent (table 1.3). The increase in exports was accounted for by exports of services, which consists primarily of spending by visitors. Exports of services increased 262.0 percent; data from the Guam Visitors Bureau arrival summary reports show that visitor arrivals increased over 300 percent.

Private fixed investment increased 14.7 percent, reflecting growth in equipment and structures. Private-sector construction projects included a 60-megawatt solar farm, resort renovations, and retail outlets.

Government spending increased 1.4 percent, reflecting growth in federal government spending that was partly offset by a decrease in territorial government spending. U.S. Department of Defense construction was a notable source of growth, as progress continued on multiple U.S. military projects, including housing and dining facilities for a new Marine Corps base.

Personal consumption expenditures increased 1.2 percent, reflecting widespread growth among consumer spending categories. Consumer spending was supported by growth in compensation and direct cash assistance administered by the territorial government.

GDP by industry and compensation by industry for 2021

In 2021, real GDP increased 2.1 percent. The newly available GDP by industry data, which are released on a 1-year lag, reveal that the private sector was the source of growth in real GDP in 2021 (table 2.5).

The private sector increased 4.4 percent (table 2.4), primarily reflecting growth in other private industries, such as health care and social assistance and financial services. Construction also increased, reflecting retail outlet and multiunit residential development projects.

The government sector decreased 1.1 percent, partly offsetting the growth in the private sector. Both federal and territorial government real value added decreased.

Total compensation increased from $3,527 million in 2020 to $3,615 million in 2021 (table 2.6). The $88 million increase reflected increases in both private-sector and government compensation. The largest contributor to the increase was construction.

Updates to Guam GDP and Its Components

Estimates for 2018–2021 that were released on November 2, 2022, have been revised to incorporate updates to source data including the following:

Audited financial statements for the Government of Guam and its independent agencies
Federal government contract obligations data from the U.S. General Services Administration Federal Procurement Data System
Tabulations of wage and personnel data provided by the U.S. Department of Defense
Tabulations of gross business receipts data provided by the Guam Department of Revenue and Taxation

The revised estimates exhibit a pattern of inflation-adjusted GDP growth similar to the previously published estimates (table 1.7).

Due to lags in the availability of data for various components of GDP, the statistics presented today for 2022 are preliminary estimates. For example, data covering government spending for the fourth quarter of 2022 were not available in time for incorporation into this year’s estimates of GDP.

For more information on the data sources underlying these estimates, see Summary of Methodologies: Gross Domestic Product for American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

GDP Statistics for Guam Paused

The annual publication of BEA’s GDP statistics for Guam is made possible through funding by the Office of Insular Affairs (OIA) of the U.S. Department of the Interior. OIA has paused funding of this work to conduct an exploratory assessment of territorial source data with the goal of informing how to strategically invest in and support Guam's economic statistics into the future. Without funding, BEA is pausing the production of GDP statistics for Guam. When funding and improved data sources become available, BEA plans to resume production of these statistics.

Archived GDP statistics for Guam will continue to be available on BEA’s website.

Full Release & Tables (PDF)

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Technical (BEA)

Christina Hovland

301-278-9076

Territories@bea.gov

Media (BEA)

Connie O’Connell

301-278-9003

Connie.OConnell@bea.gov

Media (OIA)

Melissa Braybrooks

202-336-2651

Melissa_Braybrooks@ios.doi.gov

Resources

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Historical time series for gross domestic product for the U.S. territories can be accessed at BEA's website.
For more on BEA statistics, see our online journal, the Survey of Current Business.
For upcoming economic indicators, see BEA's news release schedule.

Definitions

Gross domestic product (GDP) is the value of the goods and services produced by the Guam economy less the value of the goods and services used up in production. GDP is also equal to the sum of personal consumption expenditures, private fixed investment, change in private inventories, net exports of goods and services, and government consumption expenditures and gross investment.

Personal consumption expenditures measures the goods and services purchased by “persons”—that is, by households and by nonprofit institutions serving households—who are resident in Guam.

Private fixed investment measures spending by private businesses, nonprofit institutions, and households on structures and equipment that are used in the production of goods and services in Guam.

Change in private inventories, or “private inventory investment,” is a measure of the value of the change in the physical volume of the inventories—additions less withdrawals—that businesses maintain to support their production and distribution activities.

Net exports of goods and services is the difference between exports of goods and services and imports of goods and services. Exports measures the portion of total Guam production of goods and services that is provided to the rest of the world. Imports measures the portion of total Guam expenditures that is accounted for by goods and services provided by the rest of the world.

Government consumption expenditures and gross investment, or “government spending,” measures the portion of GDP that is accounted for by the government sector. Government consumption expenditures consists of spending by government to produce and provide services to the public. Gross investment consists of spending by government for fixed assets that directly benefit the public or that assist government agencies in their production activities.

Gross domestic income (GDI) is the sum of incomes earned and costs incurred in the production of GDP. In national economic accounting, GDP and GDI are conceptually equal.

Current-dollar estimates are valued in the prices of the period when the transactions occurred—that is, at “market value” (also referred to as “nominal estimates” or as “current-price estimates”).

Real values are inflation-adjusted estimates—that is, estimates that exclude the effects of price changes.

Statistical conventions

Quantities (or "real" volume measures) and prices are expressed as index numbers with a specified reference year equal to 100 (currently 2012). Quantity and price indexes are calculated using a Fisher chain-weighted formula that incorporates weights from two adjacent years. "Real" dollar series are calculated by multiplying the quantity index by the current-dollar value in the reference year and then dividing by 100.

Chained-dollar values are not additive, because the relative weights for a given period differ from those of the reference year.